"In 1796 New York abolished the death penalty for all crimes except murder and treason. It approved two penitentiaries to house prisoners convicted under the revised codes and serving sentences longer than one year: one in the Greenwich neighborhood of New York City and another, never brought to fruition, in Albany." Jodi Schorb, Reading Prisoners: Literature, Literacy, and the Transformation of American Punishment, 1700-1845, Rutgers UP, 2014. The author, Thomas Eddy (1758-1827) was a Philadelphia-born Quaker. He became a successful merchant in New York and engaged in charitable work. In 1796, Eddy helped State Senators Philip Schuyler and Ambrose Spencer to draft a bill which established the NY penitentiary system. He became the prison's first Director, from 1797 to 1801. He wrote this book on his experiences running the prison. Sabin 54026.